Overview
For more than half a century, the United States has led the world in developing major technologies that drive the modern economy and underpin its prosperity. In America, Inc., Linda Weiss attributes the U.S. capacity for transformative innovation to the strength of its national security state, a complex of agencies, programs, and hybrid arrangements that has developed around the institution of permanent defense preparedness and the pursuit of technological supremacy. She examines how that complex emerged and how it has evolved in response to changing geopolitical threats and domestic political constraints, from the Cold War period to the post-9/11 era. Weiss focuses on state-funded venture capital funds, new forms of technology procurement by defense and security-related agencies, and innovation in robotics, nanotechnology, and renewable energy since the 1980s. Weiss argues that the national security state has been the crucible for breakthrough innovations, a catalyst for entrepreneurship and the formation of new firms, and a collaborative network coordinator for private-sector initiatives. Her book appraises persistent myths about the military-commercial relationship at the core of the National Security State. Weiss also discusses the implications for understanding U.S. capitalism, the American state, and the future of American primacy as financialized corporations curtail investment in manufacturing and innovation.
Full Product Details
Author: Linda Weiss
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Imprint: Cornell University Press
Dimensions:
Width: 15.50cm
, Height: 2.50cm
, Length: 23.50cm
Weight: 0.907kg
ISBN: 9780801452680
ISBN 10: 0801452686
Pages: 280
Publication Date: 29 March 2014
Recommended Age: From 18 years
Audience:
General/trade
,
General
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: To order
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Reviews
America Inc.? is a timely book on the contribution of state investment in national security to U.S. technological leadership. Challenging much received wisdom about the American state and the linkages between national security and economic development, Linda Weiss advances an original, compelling argument about how geopolitical imperatives have driven American technological innovation since World War II. This is an important book that merits the attention of scholars and practitioners alike. Peter Trubowitz, London School of Economics, author of Politics and Strategy: Partisan Ambition and American Statecraft
This dense, powerful volume offers profound insights into the U.S. innovation system and its driving forces. ... [I]t deserves close attention from anyone with an interest in innovation or America's place at the technological frontier. -Mark Zachary Taylor, Political Science Quarterly (Winter 2014-15) WhileAmerica Inc.?is not a book for those desiring a normative critique of US policy, it is, instead, an invaluable analytical explanation as to how the US has been preeminent in its inexorable innovative drive to achieve and maintain its defense primacy. As such, Weiss lays out a forceful challenge to the traditional conceptualization of the US as a paradigmatic liberal capitalist state. - Dr. Maryanne Kelton, Australian Institute of International Affairs (22 June 2016) America Inc.? is a timely book on the contribution of state investment in national security to U.S. technological leadership. Challenging much received wisdom about the American state and the linkages between national security and economic development, Linda Weiss advances an original, compelling argument about how geopolitical imperatives have driven American technological innovation since World War II. This is an important book that merits the attention of scholars and practitioners alike. -Peter Trubowitz, London School of Economics, author of Politics and Strategy: Partisan Ambition and American Statecraft As the quintessential Cold War institution, MIT spawned innovation from the military industrial complex to the digital age. This perceptive exegesis of the American state as technology progenitor goes a long way to debunk the myth of the free market and the Silicon Valley start-up entrepreneur. -William W. Keller, University of Georgia, author of Arm in Arm: The Political Economy of the Global Arms Trade
Author Information
Linda Weiss is Professor Emeritus of Comparative Politics at the University of Sydney. She is the author of The Myth of the Powerless State, also from Cornell, and coeditor most recently of Developmental Politics in Transition: The Neoliberal Era and Beyond.
